


Bonding with McCoys

by canistakahari



Series: FBI AU [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2012-10-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 01:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canistakahari/pseuds/canistakahari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim meets Joanna, and wants her desperately to like him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bonding with McCoys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silverlining99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverlining99/gifts).



Joanna doesn’t say more than three words to Jim during the entire first day of her visit.   
  
She watches him, though.  
  
Jim turns around on four separate occasions to find Jo standing by the doorway of the room he’s in, watching him with her unnerving Bones-esque stare, before she realises she’s been spotted and she slips away again to run off and find her daddy.   
  
It’s kind of stomping all over Jim’s heart, even though he knows that he shouldn’t be letting it get to him. Bones had explained, patiently and with colourful examples, that Jo was painfully shy around strangers, but in about two days there would be nothing they could do to shut her up.   
  
All three words had occurred at the airport, within five minutes of meeting each other. One was “hello,” and the other two were, “thank you,” delivered with widened eyes and an expression of gratifying awe when Jo tore off the wrapping of the present Jim had gotten her and found the glossy hard-cover book on Marine life.   
  
She stared and stared and stroked the book reverently, looking up at Jim as if she had no idea what to say or do in this kind of situation, confronted with such an unexpected gesture of goodwill.   
  
“What do we say, Jo-bear?” Bones had rumbled, settling a hand on her dark head.   
  
“Thank you,” she’d whispered sincerely.   
  
When they arrived at Bones’s apartment, Joanna had vanished with the book hugged to her chest and refused to put it down even at lunch, whispering to Bones about penguins and whales and holding up a photo depicting a great white shark in midair, a seal caught in its jaws.   
  
Seeing Bones with his daughter is like getting small tantalizing glimpses of the man Bones would have been had life not stepped all over him so ruthlessly. Jim eats it up, devours every smile and laugh and drawled out bit of dad-wisdom that he offers his daughter, watches the stiff angry front Bones puts up on a daily basis just melt away and reveal his soft marshmallow core.   
  
“Eat your green beans, missus,” he orders later during dinner, pointing at Jo’s plate. She’s eaten the chicken with red peppers and the mashed potatoes and left behind a mound of greenery.   
  
“Eat your red peppers,” she counters, pointing at the slivers of vegetable Bones has pushed aside. “They’re good for you.”   
  
Bones sucks in a breath and scowls at her. “I got no more growing to do. You, on the other hand, have plenty.”  
  
“If I grow too much, then I won’t be able to sit on your shoulders anymore,” she says mildly, and Jim marvels briefly at her manipulative tactics.   
  
Sure enough, Bones’s eyes widen minutely and he huffs, stabbing his red peppers and depositing them on Jim’s plate, before scooping up half of Jo’s green beans and eating them for her. “There,” he pronounces, “you can eat the rest. Or you don’t get part two of Jim’s surprise tomorrow.”  
  
Jo’s gaze immediately slides across the table to rest on Jim, curiosity warring with reticence. She looks ready to ask, then ducks her head and shovels green beans dutifully into her mouth, mumbling, “What surprise?” at Bones.  
  
“Chew and swallow first!” says Bones. “Hell, girl, were you raised in the woods?”  
  
Bones gets up to start clearing plates and Jo meets Jim’s gaze again, rolling her eyes ceiling-ward.   
  
Jim stifles a laugh.  
  
Still, though, the entire evening progresses without a word spoken in Jim’s direction. She watches him as he cleans his plate, and he can see her desire to know what this mysterious surprise is, but she remains quiet, and an hour later, Bones orders her to bed.   
  
“She won’t talk to me,” Jim complains, crawling under the covers alongside Bones when they finally turn in. It’s habit, by now, to trail a hand over Bones’s belly, trace the scar there and remind himself Bones is fine, he’s still here, warm and solid and directing a gaze of impatient exasperation at Jim’s hangdog expression.

“Give her another day, Jim. I already know she likes you.”  
  
“She told you?” asks Jim, perking right up.   
  
“She wants to know everything about you. She’s just finding it hard to ask.”  
  


oOo

  
  
The next day, Jim takes them to the aquarium.   
  
When they get out of the car, and Jo looks up at the sign, her mouth drops open and her eyes go round.   
  
“It was Jim’s idea,” Bones says to her, taking her hand and squeezing it.   
  
Jo looks at Jim. Then she looks back at the sign. Then back at him. Something breaks through her shell.  
  
“Will you show me the octopuses?” she asks Jim, in a small voice.  
  
“Octopi,” corrects Bones absently.   
  
“Whatever,” says Jo, louder now, and she holds her other hand out to Jim. “Please?”  
  
Jim’s heart does a funny little dance of joy in his chest like he just won the lottery  _while_  skydiving. “Sure,” he says, taking her hand. “They’ve got a big one here. He’s kind of shy like you, but I hope he’ll come out and see us.”  
  
“They have beaks,” she says. “And they can fit inside jars. And they’ve got suckers all over, and eight legs, an’ squid have ten, but—”  
  
“What did I tell you?” says Bones dryly, speaking fondly to Jim over Jo’s head. “Can’t shut her up for love or money.”   
  
He’s smiling, soft and open, and it’s all for Jim and Jo.


End file.
